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A significant number of venues first opened their doors in 1969. We have taken ‘newly opened’ venues to be those that explicitly advertise themselves as new. In other words a new venue can open within a building that has previously hosted performances. If a venue hasn’t declared itself to be ‘new’, we haven’t assumed it just opened (even if we’ve listed the first gig within TUGG for that venue).
In 1969 we listed 12 venues that had a ‘Grand Opening’ gig.
They are:
What’s immediately noticeable is that almost all of the venues tried to make a big splash by employing one of the ‘hot’ bands of the day for their Grand Opening. The effectiveness of this strategy is debatable with many of the new venues either discontinuing their gig listings in Go-Set after a few weeks or simply finishing up.
Two of the venues that did kick on were Traffik and Peppers. Traffik was a large club that occupied the building previously the home of the infamous ‘Catcher’. Peppers was held at the Box Hill Town Hall and had a unique setup where the younguns could go and rage downstairs where their favourite band played whilst mums and dads tripped upstairs to the ballroom (cool concept I reckon!)
What’s immediately noticeable is that almost all of the venues tried to make a big splash by employing one of the ‘hot’ bands of the day for their Grand Opening. The effectiveness of this strategy is debatable with many of the new venues either discontinuing their gig listings in Go-Set after a few weeks or simply finishing up.
Two of the venues that did kick on were Traffik and Peppers. Traffik was a large club that occupied the building previously the home of the infamous ‘Catcher’. Peppers was held at the Box Hill Town Hall and had a unique setup where the younguns could go and rage downstairs where their favourite band played whilst mums and dads tripped upstairs to the ballroom (cool concept I reckon!)
A notable exception to the rule that new venues splash out on big name acts was the Jam Factory. Its opening was a ‘musos only’ closed event where performers and spectacular dance magician Jeff Crozier appeared and jammed all night long. This place seemed to offer any punters attending something far more freeform than most of the dances of the time.
A quick summary of the highlights of 1969:
Total of 168 Gigs listed
Venues most played:The Victorian seaside was a popular place for gigs in the summertime of 1969. Hordes of teens got out of Melbourne and flocked to the waves of the seaside towns during the day and needed somewhere to dance the sand off their feet at night.
The Mornington Peninsula town Sorrento had a dance at the local RSL called Tom Katz. This dance had some popular bands play and had gigs most nights throughout January and weekend gigs right until March as well as the Easter break in early April.
Tootgarook (near Rye and Rosebud) had a dance called Itzagas which ran during the first week of 1969. In Rosebud at Peninsula Gardens a couple of large concerts were held where top rockers Masters Apprentices, Ronnie Burns, Johnny Farnham and The Zoot performed.
The town of Mornington (about 60 kms out of Melbourne) held a dance called Caesars, at its town hall throughout 1969. Its busiest time was during January where 10 gigs were held.
Further east, in Westernport Bay, the Phillip Island town of Cowes had a dance at the Cowes Old Post Office. Despite 16 gigs in January the venue wasn’t heard of again until 1970.
On the West Coast, there was a dance listed at Airey’s Inlet where hipster pop rockers The Groop, held a week long residency from New Years Eve into January 1969.
Way out west at Warrnambool 16 gigs were held from New Year’s Eve into mid January as some of the finest Melbourne based groups headed out to this regional city.
At years end a few more beachside regional towns featured gigs listed for December 69. The Wild Colonial Club at Lorne had held a dance for many summers since the late 1950s, though was only listed this year for December.
The Jan Juc Surf Lifesaving Club held some dances around Christmas time with the Town Criers and the New Dream providing the entertainment. On the eastern side of Melbourne at Cape Patterson, the Afghan dance hosted music from Christmas 1969 into early January 1970.